Congratulations to BME undergraduate students, Anne Gormaley and Danny Xie, who were accepted into the prestigious NIH Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program (BESIP).

Gormaley will be working in the Developmental Neurobiology Section under the mentorship of Dr. Herbert M. Geller evaluating the role of adhesiveness in controlling axonal growth of cultured neurons. The primary research is to focus on signals derived from the extracellular matrix, especially proteoglycans, as well as responses of growing neurons to biophysical properties of their environment, such as substrate stiffness. The overall goal is to improve recovery of function following brain or spinal cord injury.

Xie will be working in the Functional and Applied Biomechanics Section, Rehabilitation Medicine Department under the mentorship of Drs. Diane Damiano and Thomas Bulea evaluating brain activity during functional tasks using noninvasive neuroimaging in healthy individuals and individuals with cerebral palsy. The primary research is to investigate mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal motor control and to design devices and/or interventions to improve motor function in children and adults with physical disabilities as a result of brain injuries. The primary goal of this project is to contribute to an ongoing study utilizing EEG in combination with motion capture and EMG to evaluate hand and arm function in children with cerebral palsy and a group of age-matched controls with typical development.  

BESIP is for undergraduate biomedical engineering students who have completed their junior year of college. The 10-week program, under the guidance of Dr. Robert Lutz, BESIP Program Director, is scheduled from June 4, 2018, to August 10, 2018. The internship will allow rising senior bioengineering students to participate in cutting-edge biomedical research projects under the mentorship of world-class scientists in NIH laboratories in Bethesda, MD.

Selected by a nationwide competition, the interns will have the opportunity to indicate preferences from a list of available NIH projects that involve areas of engineering or physical science expertise. The students will participate in group meetings, attend planned lectures and laboratory visits and be encouraged to submit posters to the NIH Poster Day where summer interns from all disciplines present their projects.

Congratulations, Anne and Danny!